10 reasons to watch ... Justified

By Gabriel Wilder

February 26, 2012 — 12.00am

There's nothing else like it It's a modern-day western whose hero, Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant), is a sexy, trigger-happy, cowboy-hat-wearing US marshal. But the series is full of equally enticing figures: Ava, the sassy girl who had a crush on him in high school who he meets again after she shoots her abusive husband; Raylan's father, a sporadically successful scammer; and the guys at the Lexington marshal's office who have a collective sense of humour drier than the Murray-Darling during El Niñ˜o.

It has quite a pedigree It's adapted from a short story called Fire in the Hole by revered crime writer Elmore Leonard.

It doesn't muck around It's two minutes before the first shooting (it's "justified") and less than 10 before the first explosion ("fire in the hole").

There's more than bullets and bangs Earthy humour is a Leonard trademark but the Kentucky setting allows for some local idioms that, when uttered with a southern lilt, sound downright lyrical. A dodgy informant is "a stone cold flim-flam man and, if you let him, he will pull your strings"; an attractive lady is "cute as a pailful of kittens"; a cornered criminal, speaking about himself in the third person bemoans, "It's the end times for Dewey Crowe!"

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Justified ...Timothy Olyphant

There's something for the ladies Or anyone who likes a smart, fit, semi-naked man. Series one, episode six, Raylan's boss Art gets him out of bed. He answers the door shirtless, unbuttoned jeans hanging off hips. Art mocks him; I lose my breath.

The ladies are something, too Ava (Joelle Carter) is the kind of female character all too rare in pop culture. She's funny and speaks her mind, she's tough and requires a minimum of rescuing. And she's so sexy she smoulders. Erica Tazel doesn't get enough to do as fellow marshal Rachel Brooks but her mockery of our hero is a treat. Season two brings Mags Bennett, a crime matriarch who rules her hillbilly patch with an iron fist (Margo Martindale won an Emmy for the role).

Strange bedfellows and uneasy alliances. Justified focuses on what happens when lawless people do business together. Mix a few sharp tacks among the boneheads, combine them with greed, divided loyalties, stupidity, violence, moonshine, dope, OxyContin and bank heists and you have all the ingredients for a hilarious and harrowing series. And that's before the good guys step in.

Walton Goggins as Boyd Crowder In an ensemble this good, it's a crime to single out one actor - and in a story this rich, it feels just as bad to focus on one character - but Boyd Crowder, played by The Shield's Goggins, is worthy on both counts. The show ostensibly focuses on Olyphant's good guy Raylan but Goggins steals every scene as the ambiguous Boyd, a man with a criminal history who claims to find the Lord.

It eases you into the story gently The first season slowly builds up the backstory of Raylan's return to Harlan, Kentucky, and the small-town family dynamics that dominate it over a series of weekly episodic stories, so casual viewers won't feel lost. By season two, the stage is set to explore the area's local politics and the bitter, combustible family rivalries.

It keeps getting better The epic season one finale shows the creative team at the top of their game. The second season (which airs directly after the first) bears this out, blowing season one out of the water.